Toronto critics call Drake album shallow, want to punch him in the face

While Drake’s Thank Me Later has garnered generally positive reviews south of the 49th (its MetaCritic score currently sits at 80, with big-ups from Pitchfork, The Onion, All Music Guide, Spin, Village Voice and Vibe), some Toronto critics have taken their homeboy to task for being “unbelievably shallow,” “humourless” and sounding “like a frog.”

In his two-out-of-five review, Eye’s music editor, Dave Morris, writes:

As parents of spoiled children often discover, though, privileged offspring like Drake tend to be too self-absorbed to recognize anything outside their own minor trials. Drake is unbelivably shallow—imagine Kanye’s solipsism and self-pity without the self-satirizing humour… If all Drake’s going to do with fame is moan about the minutiae of his own famousness, can’t we give the mic instead to someone who doesn’t take himself so seriously?

Drake recently said he feels unsafe in Toronto since shooting to fame with last year’s staggering So Far Gone mixtape. And after dropping Thank Me Later, he should feel unsafe. I’d punch him in the face, anyway.

After a year of anticipating what should’ve been a game-changer, Drake turns in a merely passable album and comes across as the rap music version of Justin Bieber. Drake’s hooks are flimsy and irritating. His long-winded emo choruses gnaw at your brain. He complains about fame way too much. He mentions Kelsey Grammer for no reason. He’s completely humourless.